


Defiance

by scottlang



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, F/M, M/M, Marvel Universe, Other, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-21
Updated: 2019-05-21
Packaged: 2020-03-09 06:44:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,080
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18911671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scottlang/pseuds/scottlang
Summary: This was the end of the great Tony Stark.





	Defiance

Was this really his 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 act of defiance?  
  
If it was, then 𝘸𝘰𝘸, what a way to go.  
  
Tony knew he had to prepare for the inevitable—Thanos was the inevitable, the alien had proclaimed. Transforming a spare glove from an old suit of armor into a gauntlet wielding his fate was a challenge the mechanic had accepted, almost too enthusiastically.  
  
When he grabbed the alien’s hand and pulled the stones from the glove, he felt a feeling unlike any other. A surge of pain coursed through his veins, and the light the stones emitted became bold and bright, his vision blinded. He knew what he had to do, he knew he wouldn’t survive but the fate of the universe, of the Avengers, of his child rested in the inventor’s hand.  
  
And he refused to make the mistakes of his past again.  
  
“𝘐... 𝘢𝘮... 𝙄𝙧𝙤𝙣 𝙈𝙖𝙣.”  
  
He snapped his fingers, and whoever said that your life would flash before your eyes before you died, Tony had to give them credit.  
  
For whatever stupid, painful reason, they were right.

* * *

Tony saw himself playing hide and seek with his mom—his father was preoccupied with some invention and had been hiding out in his office. His mother, however, had told Tony to go ahead and find someplace clever to hide. He chose the laundry chute.  
  
“Come out, come out, wherever you are, Tony!” Maria called out, a bright smile upon her fair complexion as she searched behind curtains and in the cupboard.  
  
His foot hit against the door of the laundry chute, and it caused his mother to turn towards the noise. Tony held his breath, keeping himself from bursting into little laughs, before his mother opened the door in a flourish.  
  
“Found you!”  
  
“I thought I found a good place to hide,” a young Tony giggled, being picked up by his mother, the woman ruffling the little boys curly brown locks.  
  
“You had me tricked there for a bit, Tony,” the Stark woman pressed a kiss to his forehead, bringing him to the kitchen and sitting him on the counter. “You look like you could use some lunch.”  
  
Tony nodded, kicking his feet against the counter, watching his mom prepare him a grilled cheese.  
  
“Mom... does Dad love me?”  
  
“Oh, Tony, your father loves you very much. He just isn’t used to saying it. We both love you to the moon and back, and we’re never going to stop. We 𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚 you, Tony. Always.”

* * *

Tony saw his first night out with Rhodey, where they stumbled across a shabby looking bar with less than welcoming patrons and an exhausted owner. After sliding the bartender a good portion of cash, the two sat at the bar, ordering drink after drink. They drank and laughed, and Tony knew he found someone who he wanted in his life for a long time.  
  
“What do you plan on doing after the military, man?” Tony remembers asking, sipping on a glass of whiskey.  
  
“I don’t plan on leaving for a long time, Tony. Purpose is what I’ve found, and I wouldn’t trade my experiences for the world.”  
  
“Sounds quite optimistic, Lieutenant Rhodes. Not sure I hold that same sentiment with my dad’s—𝙢𝙮 company.”  
  
“Well, Tony, maybe you should sit down and get a life. It’s a pretty good distraction,” Rhodey grinned, leaning back on his bar-stool, sipping at his beer.  
  
“Maybe you’re right about that, but I’ll never admit it,” the inventor gave his friend an amused look, finishing the whiskey in his hand.

* * *

Tony remembers Pepper threatening his bodyguards with her alleged pepper spray—her ferocity amused him, and her expression brought a warmth to him that he had not felt in a long, long time. The bodyguards had moved as soon as Tony ordered them too, and a flustered Virginia Potts handed him information concerning the Stark Industries financial records.  
  
“You know,” Tony began, a smirk upon his expression as he motioned for the guards to leave, ushering Ms. Potts to his desk. “That was impressive—but I gotta ask… do you really have pepper spray on you?”  
  
“I might,” Virginia answered, settling the files in her arms upon the glass top of his expensive looking desk. “That’s my business, and what I had to say was important. I was simply doing my job; it was your goons who made the situation worse.”  
  
“On behalf of Stark Industries, I apologize for how they treated you. On behalf of myself,” he paused, for dramatic effect. “I want to hire you as my executive assistant.”  
  
“You want to 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩?”  
  
“Executive… assistant,” Tony enunciated, leaning against the side of his desk, a wide smirk upon his face.  
  
“Is this some sort of joke?”  
  
“Would I ever joke to you, Ms. Potts?”  
  
“I suppose I’ll find that out soon, Mr. Stark,” Virginia allowed a smile to form upon her face, hand reaching to his to shake. He returned the gesture, shaking the redhead’s hand.  
  
“Welcome to Stark Industries, Ms. Potts. There, a real welcome. Let’s get this paperwork started, shall we?”

* * *

He remembers the first time he was alone with Steve Rogers—a sort of deep-seated jealousy rose to the surface after meeting the patriotic of World War II era American. Tony had been working on his suit in the Helicarrier, rock music playing in the background as he hummed along, fixing a damaged circuit board in the chest-piece of his armor.  
  
“Mr. Stark,” the soldier interrupted his concentration, causing a sigh to leave Tony as he leaned back in his chair.  
  
“Yes, Captain, is something of the matter? Or, can I stay hidden in here until the Tesseract is located?”  
  
“The Tesseract hasn’t been located, yet. And I figured we could start over, our introduction was less than formal,” Steve replied. “Nick Fury told me about you—about you being Howard Stark’s son. Your father was a good man and a good friend, I’m sorry about what happened to him and your mother,” Steve stood awkwardly near the door, hands tucked behind his back as he stared at the back of Tony’s head.  
  
“My father was tough on me, some might say too tough, but he did what he had to do. That’s what we all can do, right?” Tony glanced behind him, digits pressed against the bridge of his nose, a headache beginning to make its presence known.  
  
“If it’s all the same to you, Tony, I appreciate your frankness. Howard, he had some questionable ideals.”  
  
“He believed in profit at the sake humanity.”  
  
“And you don’t. That’s something to be proud of.”  
  
Tony stayed quiet, turning his chair slightly before standing, walking towards the captain, holding out his palm.  
  
“My dad told me stories about you all time—you were his hero, you were practically everyone’s hero. He wouldn’t let me play with the prototypes of your shield, told me they were mementos of a 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 before.”  
  
Steve took Tony’s hand in his, giving it a solid shake before releasing it.  
  
“I hope I can live up to your expectations, Tony,” he offered a kinder smile.  
  
For once, Tony hadn’t felt a loathing to the male. That feeling had dissipated, and he reached over and patted the soldier’s shoulder, a smirk forming upon his visage.  
  
“You already have, Steve.”

* * *

Tony remembers Peter fading from his arms.  
  
“I’m sorry...” Peter whispered out, youthful eyes stained with tears as he stared at his mentor. Tony held onto him, calming him as best he could, but he couldn’t feel calm himself. The kid had been a beacon of hope for the billionaire to start anew, and his life was always on the line in his work, but he hadn’t realized just how 𝙛𝙧𝙖𝙜𝙞𝙡𝙚 it was.  
  
Peter fell through Tony’s arms, the dust that remained from the teenager coating his palms. He disappeared into ash, as the others around them had. Quill, Strange, and the other aliens, they had gone too. There was no noise coming out of the inventor’s mouth, other than a choked back sob as he knelt, his palms clasping together.  
  
He sat there for a while, not hearing anything, refusing to feel the pain he had just gone through. It took him forever before he could muster up the courage to stand and face the only other person who had survived alongside him.  
  
“We have to go,” the cyborg woman bluntly stated. She had been silent, watching Tony closely as she stood still, eyes having drawn to the ground.  
  
Perhaps, he was making a mistake placing so much trust into an alien he had only just met several hours prior, but he didn’t care. 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦. There was so much loss around him he couldn’t bear to think. Giving the purple woman a shaky nod, Tony finally followed behind her as they headed to a ship—Quill’s ship.  
  
They got inside and entered the cockpit, Stark sitting in a copilot seat, away from Nebula. The alien shut the doors behind them, switching on the spacecraft before exiting the unstable atmosphere of Titan. The billionaire pressed his palms to his eyes, feeling only sadness once more. He tried to take deep breaths, but he was panicking, and there wasn’t anything around him to help him calm down. He was in a foreign space with a foreign being all the way across the universe. The last time he had done something this brash, he had sent a nuke into a ship filled with aliens attacking his home.  
  
It took forever before they finally reached home—a glowing light became his beacon of hope, and she had introduced herself as Carol Danvers. When Tony was able to get a hold of himself, despite feeling anything but control over the situation, he motioned for Nebula to join him in the cockpit, nodding a thanks to the blonde outside, praying that she got them home. Tony fell once more into a dreamless slumber, and hoped he’d make it home to at least say a final goodbye.

* * *

Tony remembers seeing Steve and Pepper and Rhodey for the first time in a long time and feeling his heart break all over again.   
  
𝘏𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘥, Tony told Steve. 𝘛𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙩, Steve told him.  
  
The worst part of this entire situation was the fact that he was losing something he worked his whole life to attain—a family of his own. After meeting Yinsen, and hearing about his family, that was all that the great Tony Stark ever wanted. He had wanted to make him proud, and hopefully, when he saw him soon, he’d get a chance to tell Yinsen himself. The Avengers, as dysfunctional as they were, had become a family over time but due to mistakes made… that family had broken. And after this war, after all the pain everyone had gone through, he hoped that his... his death would bring them back together again. Tony never got the chance to piece together what he once had, but it was okay. Pepper was his family now, and when he held his daughter for the first time, he felt the shattered pieces of his heart begin to mend.  
  
Tony hoped the message he recorded for Morgan saved. He really should’ve checked to make sure it had.  
  
When Thanos began to fade away, Tony stumbled to the ground, the immense power of the stones turning something off inside him. This was it, this was his last act of defiance against the demons that had plagued him all his life. His plan had worked, his friends were okay, Peter was okay, but the guilt remained. Something was pulling at him, tugging him away from the world he called his home.  
  
“𝘋𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 𝘪𝘵... 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚, 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘬.”  
  
Tony remembered those words—the ones that kept him going, as Iron Man, as Tony Stark, as a hero and as a father. He was Iron Man, and it was time for him to put down the armor that had gave him so much life to live, and a few broken ribs along the way.  
  
“Tony, look at me. We’re gonna be okay… you can rest now,” Pepper’s voice felt so distant, so far away, Tony wanted to take her and hold her and tell her it was going to be okay but she was just too 𝙛𝙖𝙧 𝙖𝙬𝙖𝙮.  
  
Her sobs were the last thing he heard before everything fell silent and the world around him, his family around him, faded to black.


End file.
